Acrophobia or fear of heights: what it is, its meaning and how to overcome it

Crossing an elevated bridge, using a glass elevator, going down very steep stairs or leaning out of a window on a high floor are completely unthinkable situations for those who suffer acrophobia. Its meaning?Etymologically, the term acrophobia comes from the Greek (acros=height, phobia=fear) and It refers to an irrational and excessive fear of falling from a high altitude.

It is estimated that between 5% and 10% of the population have some degree of acrophobia or fear of heights, depending on different studies. This type of phobia is the second most common, after fear of animals.

Acrophobia: symptoms

The person suffering from acrophobia experiences an exaggerated and disabling fear of heights. When you are in a high place or even just thinking about it, you can feel high levels of anxiety:

SweatingTensionPalpitationsDifficulty breathing…

As in other phobias, the problem is not limited to the discomfort caused by the situation itself, but also the person tends to avoid potentially “dangerous” situations. Due to these avoidant behaviors, their mobility and social relationships may be greatly reduced.

Another difficulty that people who suffer from acrophobia often face is the lack of understanding of their environment. Often they are the reason for ridicule for not being able to face a situation that is totally normal for others. We must remember that the person suffering from any phobia does not exaggerate their fears. Really they feel they are in grave danger And they can’t do anything to stop it.

Causes of fear of heights

The causes of acrophobia can be diverse:

A possible physiological problem. If the person has problems with their sense of balance, they may be much more sensitive to experiencing vertigo or dizziness in high places. In this type of phobia, it is always necessary to study and rule out a physical origin.Traumatic experiences of the past. They can be associated with being in high places and give rise to this phobia. In some cases, it is not necessary to have suffered a personal trauma, but the mere fact of hearing bad news about an accident from another person in situations of height, can cause especially sensitive people to develop special prevention against certain types of places and that this ends up becoming a phobia.

How acrophobia is treated from psychology: a real case

A very clear example of acrophobia caused by a bad experience in the past It is that of Víctor, a 38-year-old boy who came for a consultation when his fear of heights had reached an unbearable extreme for him.

Throughout his life he remembered having been afraid to approach a terrace or look out a window, but in recent years, his fear had been increasing. He avoided all potentially dangerous situations for him. The mere fact of being on a slightly elevated hill and seeing the landscape below it already caused him concern.

Nevertheless, his worst fears appeared in the city. He didn’t need to see himself on a high hill to panic, just imagining the situation made him feel nervous. Even being inside a building, if he was on a high floor, he would start to worry and tense up.

Asking him about his history and his ideas about the origin of his problem, Víctor explained to me that his relatives told a funny anecdote of a scene in which, At just 8 years old, his head was wedged between the bars of his grandmother’s terrace.

In consultation, Víctor was able to remember that scene, but connecting with his own emotions to understand the fear that the boy felt during that long time that he remained stuck on the terrace, with his head sticking out between the bars and looking down from an eighth floor.

His mother’s cries of alarm and arguments between his father and grandmother about the best method to dislodge his head didn’t help at all, but instead they added more tension to the emotional state of the little one.

Through several work sessions, Víctor was able to reprogram his way of dealing with altitude. Little by little, he was separating the fear and tension that he experienced at that moment from the fact of being at a height. He managed to internalize the message that not all situations at height have to be as dangerous and disastrous as the one he experienced in his childhood.

In a few weeks, Victor was gaining confidence. He managed, first of all, to be calmer on the top floor of a building. He was feeling more confident to approach windows and viewpoints, verifying that they are safe places and that the exaggerated fear that he felt was the result of his bad experience.

Finally, He achieved his goal of having a healthy relationship with height, like the rest of the people. To celebrate, he set himself the goal of climbing the 674 steps that allow you to climb to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. From there, he sent me a selfie and the following sentence: “No problem.”